Ep. 1430: Where we flail away with Spotify's Shanon Cook

February 21, 2014

Transcript

-Welcome to The 404 Show on this Friday, February 21st, 2014.
I'm Jeff Bakalar.
-I'm Justin Yu.
-That's Ariel NuÃ±ez from the board.
We are welcoming--
-Who am I?
-You are Shanon Cook.
Welcome back to our program.
-Thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
-Thank you for being here.
It's been a couple of months.
-Uh-hmm.
-We're very excited that you're here.
-Me too.
-This is-- you know, to honor
the international theme of the Olympics, we're gonna have an international guest on this week.
-I'm not gonna get out the Bobsleigh though.
-Well, we're just gonna say like, you guys are kind of not doing too well in the Olympics.
-We're Australian.
-So what?
It's never snowed in Australia.
-It's the Winter Olympics.
There are snowy peaks but I mean, I think it's mainly the Aussies who moved to like Whistler in Canada.
-Yeah, right.
-And there are a lot of us who's in Whistler.
-And they just stay there.
-Uh-hmm.
-Yeah, I think those are the ones that would be
competing in the Winter Olympics.
-You might be the only--
-We're at the summer games.
-You might be the only Australian transplant in this cold of weather right now.
-No.
I don't think so.
-So, you guys have three medals.
-Though I did-- I have--
-In the entire, did you know that?
-That's fantastic.
-That's really bad, yeah.
-In what sports?
-I don't know.
-I don't know.
-I think like some sport of speed skating maybe.
Oh, no, yeah freestyle skiing.
-Uh-hmm.
-And snowboard.
There you go, you got a silver in snowboard.
Good for you, guys.
-You guys are sort of being nasty.
-Yeah, we're being-- we're--
-You're being really nasty night.
-We're [unk]
on real thick.
Anyway--
-And let's-- bring me back during the next summer games and then we'll talk.
-Yeah, like we still do better than you in that.
-Because we kick ass there.
Well, you're American.
There are like 300 million of you in there.
-How many Australians are there?
Like 63?
I don't understand.
-No, no, no.
It's more like around 20, 25 million.
I don't know the exact--
-Oh, cry me a river.
-She's not here to talk about the Olympics.
-I'm not.
-Well, sort of.
-But she wants to talk about the music.
-Look at my posture right now.
-Yeah, super grumpy.
-Oh, yeah.
-I just started to slump because I just felt so inadequate.
-I apologize
for my cold nose.
-Because I don't know how to jump on the luge thingy.
-Because I don't know how to jump on the luge.
-However, I have to admit, because there's been such a, you know, deluge of snow here in New York.
-Yeah.
-I did go sledding in Central Park.
-Oh, sick.
How was that?
-It was the first time I'd ever done any kind of snow activity aside from build a snowman, very small one.
-Right, yeah.
-It was so fun.
-Right on.
-It hurt my butt.
-Did you actually buy a snow or did you just take a trash can lid off--
-No, no, no, like a $20 plastic sled from the grocery store.
-Nice.
-So, did you-- and you--
Did you do like the running start too or that's the best--
-No.
That was a little ambitious.
-Yeah.
-A couple of guys who were from Minnesota were doing that but they're from Minnesota,
-All pros, yeah.
-so they know it.
And one guy went down standing up.
-Oh, like try to surf it.
-Yeah.
He actually said, I'm gonna go down standing up and I laughed like-- yeah, and then he started to go down.
I was like, wait.
But he survived.
-Oh, good.
-And so did I.
It was really super fun.
-I'm glad you're enjoying our nice little winter we're having here.
-Thanks.
-It's pretty brutal.
-That's pretty brutal.
And we're getting up more snow, we don't talk about the weather because that's boring.
-No, of course not.
-But we're getting more snow next week.
This is getting crazy.
-Yeah, the fun never starts.
If you've listened to our show for the last year or so, you know that Shanon comes to us from Spotify.
-Yeah, who is that?
Who is this girl?
-Yeah, who is this Australian lady?
She speaks funny.
And you bring with you every time you're here a really cool sort of like viral list of songs.
-I bring viruses.
-You bring viral outbreak.
-To your set.
-So all wearing--
has med suits.
So, what do you have for us this week?
-Well, I thought we could start by talking about the Olympics because we've just started off.
-Sure.
-We started off shaming my homeland.
-Shaming.
-We were in some, our analytics team ran some data to find out what songs people were listening to during the Olympics that were obviously getting them in the mood for Olympics rivalry.
Is there such a thing?
-So, how's that work?
Is it like--
-These are--
these are the top streams tracks from playlists that are Olympic-themed.
-Okay.
Got you.
I thought like you were--
-And--
-they were sniffing out like Sochi IP addresses.
-No, no, no.
-Yeah, okay.
-No, no, no.
We don't sniff out like that.
-Right, no.
-But these are songs that-- people created lots of playlists for the Olympics.
-Sure.
-And they've really been listening to their playlist.
-Okay.
-And these are the most streamed tracks from most playlists.
Number one is Don't Stop Believing by Journey.
-Uh-hmm.
-They're kind of cheesy
songs.
-I was just gonna say like come on, that is the cheesiest song.
-Are you a little unhappy about that?
What about-- we've got Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen.
-Oh, right.
-But okay.
-They're pretty obvious songs.
-Yeah, can we guess some of the others?
Is there like Another One Bites the Dust on there as well?
-No.
-Why would that be on there?
What about We Are the Champions?
-We've got--
-Yeah, We Are the Champions, something like that.
-Yeah, that's in the top 20 but we've also got Roar by Katy Perry.
I know you're thrilled about that.
-I like that song.
Survivor.
-Eye of the Tiger?
-Yeah, of course.
-The Chariots of Fire
theme songs.
-Oh, yeah.
-It's very cute.
-What about The Warrior?
-We Will Rock You.
-We Will Rock, that's another Queen.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-What about The Warrior?
-Look, I'm just telling you what's in the list.
You can't just keep throwing that songs hoping that they're on the list.
-Can we both ones-- are on the list.
-No.
But what is interesting is there's this Audiomachine, there's this-- it's like a production company that does a lot of music for ad campaigns.
-Uh-hmm.
-And they did two pieces of music that appeared in the opening, that top that
NBC's broadcast.
-Right.
-The opening-- for the opening ceremony and
-Uh-hmm.
-they are in this list.
-Oh, that's interesting.
-People have been-- one of them is called-- the collective is called Audiomachine and one of their pieces is called Deep Heart.
-Can we hear Audiomachine?
I wanna hear that.
-Yeah.
Listen to Deep Heart.
It's quite lovely.
-Yeah.
I'm playing it right now.
-Audiomachine.
Deep Heart.
-Are we playing it?
We are not playing it.
Oh, here it comes.
-It's a slow built.
-Hey, you can fast forward a little bit.
-It's like climbing-- you're climbing the mountain with your skis.
-Okay.
So this is like--
-Oh, wow.
It's a little ominous.
-Yeah.
-It's like uber dramatic.
-Yeah.
-And actually their songs populate the top 20 there like 8 pieces of music.
-Right.
-So, people have obviously been getting into them.
-Right.
That's pretty cool.
-Oh, come on.
That sounds great for Winter Olympics.
-Yes.
-No, it is.
-It sounds like a figure skating performance.
-Did I do this in the Winter Olympics?
-I
don't know what sport that would be.
-Yeah, what--
-The ice dancing.
-What competition is that?
Oh, flailing.
-Oh, yeah.
-Here flailing, the Australian art of flailing.
-I'm actually kind of into this though.
-Yes, very odd lately.
-What do you want from me?
That's what I'm seeing here.
-This is cool.
-It is cool.
-It is cool.
Yeah.
-Yeah.
It sounds like a score to a movie.
-It's like-- yeah, like something epic is about to happen.
-Uh-hmm.
-They have another piece called Equinox.
-The agony of defeat.
I'm sorry.
I've been watching a lot of the figure skating.
Have you?
Have you?
-Yeah, I enjoyed the figure skating.
-Do you laugh when they
fall like I do?
-No.
-Oh, come on.
It is-- I'm sorry.
It's kind of funny.
-Well, it's not funny because it's painful.
But what is funny is when they--
-Can we all just look--
-Ariel's laughing.
Why is he laughing?
He's laughing at the idea of ice--
-Because this is such an epic--
-Because I'm like looking to him and trying to look dramatically off into the distance.
-Yeah.
It's like, and there she is Olympic flailer.
-Yeah.
-Shanon Cook.
-Look at her flail, ladies and gentlemen.
-Look at her flail down the mountain.
-Never see a caliber--
-The grace of a deer.
-The funny thing is I would flail down the mountain but I flailed when I went sledding.
-Here's an Equinox.
This is the other one you were talking about.
-Yeah.
-Okay.
This is the--
-Even the name of this album is dramatic.
It's Tree of Life.
-Yeah.
-Uh-huh.
-And Champions Will Rise and also appears--
-You know what's so unlike--
-Well, they have a whole album dedicated to the--
-A lot of chanting.
-these Olympics.
-A lot of chanting.
-No, these Olympics.
-I don't know if this would be a good workout song.
-Yeah.
-So, these are like two different types of genres.
-Right.
-But you wouldn't wanna workout to this.
-No.
-No.
-But this is more of like a--
-You might.
-You've already won the award.
-No, I would--
-And you're like triumphant on the hill.
-If I was an Olympic athlete, I would listen to this as the plane is descending into Sochi.
-Yeah.
-And I'd be like, this is your time, Jeff.
-Right.
-It's time to win the hotdog eating competition.
-Right
-In the Winter Olympics.
Like this is your moment.
Shine.
Shine away.
-Slowing down your seat, yeah.
-That's what I would-- but you know what, I like the opening theme song when you watch the Olympics.
-Uh-hmm.
-It's that like epic-- I don't know if it's on Spotify.
-They use it.
They--
-It's like NBC is there.
-Yeah, and they use it for the summer games as well.
-Yeah.
-It's really nice.
I know what you mean.
-Yeah.
There's something about it that it instantly brings me into--
-It's like BBC, I don't know if you ever watch the BBC but their BBC World does it.
-Hold on, Shanon.
-I'm sorry.
-Hold on.
-Can you get up and run in slow motion for me?
-Here it is.
There she is.
She's so great though.
-Oh, that.
-Like you weren't-- you didn't see that because it's on the
desk.
-You put your knee on for-- that was weird.
-You don't run with your knees up.
-Yeah, but you were like doing this weird like gazelle.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-It was good though.
-The interesting [unk].
-I run like a gazelle.
My dad used to tell me that when I was younger.
-Really?
-Because they're also fast.
That's a compliment.
-It is.
-Yes, they are very fast and I'm graceful.
-What's the-- there's the-- for whatever reason, the movie I think of is Mr.
Mom, when I hear this song with Michael Keaton.
-With Michael, yeah.
-Have you seen that one?
-Yes.
-At the end in the obstacle course, this is the song they play.
-No way.
-And he's heading the-- heading towards the finish line.
-And they're doing it in slow-motion obviously.
-Oh, yeah.
You can't have anything going in normal speed to this song.
It just looks out of place.
-Wow, so good.
-Good job.
All right.
-All right.
So, that's some Olympics stuff.
Now, sort of in the same vein,
-Yeah.
-you know how when I do come on we talk about our viral list.
-Right.
-Every week we have a new list that comes out which highlights the top, you know, ten songs that are trending in the U.S.
-Sure.
-Songs that perhaps reflect the mood of the country,
-Sure.
-which is what we often say.
And one of them, one in our top five this week has another sort of Olympics flavor to it.
It's a song called Odyssey and it's by a New Zealand indie band called The Wyld.
Wyld spelled W-Y-L-D.
-Like Wyld Stallyns.
-Because that's wildly created.
-Yeah.
-And you never would have heard of these guys otherwise, but their song appeared in the McDonald's Sochi Olympics campaign.
-Okay.
-So,
it's an ad for McNuggets, oh chicken nuggets I believe.
-Oh, nothing-- nothing makes me wanna play sports more than McDonald's.
-I know.
-Yeah.
How are they in Coca-Cola?
The sponsors of the Olympics?
Do you think any of the athletes are rocking McDonald's or Coca-Cola on the way,
-I wouldn't think so.
-as part of their training?
-I know.
It just doesn't really jill with athleticism.
-Right.
So, this is the--
-But this is the song that we're hearing now that is used in this ad and people have been hearing it and they've been checking it out on Spotify.
-How many times have we said that?
That's what you gotta do, man.
-Get on that.
-You're just gonna get your song in a freaking commercial.
-Yeah.
-And you're set.
Even if it's not good as we're finding out right here.
You're still gonna be--
-It's with Justin-- we have to remember Justin, you don't like any music.
-That's Jeff.
-I'm Jeff.
I'm Jeff.
Justin.
-Oh, my God.
I'm sorry.
-You remember, that's twice--
-You're Shanon.
-I'm having name issues today.
-Have we met before?
-And that's Ja Rule over there.
-Yeah.
-It's okay.
-Oh, you guys--
-It's okay.
We'll cut that out of course.
-You guys have been mispronouncing my name from the start.
-Was that Shanon?
-Shanon Cook.
-You pronounce it as Shanon with two Ns.
It's just one N of it.
-Oh--
-So, Shanon is what we should be calling you?
-Shanon.
-No.
Don't call me Shanon.
-It's Shanon.
-But you're right.
Jeff hates hip hop music.
-No, I don't.
-This is what I really fall into.
-This isn't hip hop.
Ariel will be offended if you call this hip hop.
-But wait, we were paying some sort of cool house music earlier and he was like, cut that off, that's not real music.
-Yeah.
-We'll get to that.
-Just like that.
-We'll get to that.
-Yeah.
-I'm just waving my cane of it.
-So, this is the third most popular song or most
shared track on Spotify for this week in the U.S.
Do you want us to talk about the number one song?
-Okay.
-Have you seen The Lego Movie?
-I did.
-You did?
-Yeah.
-Did you like it?
-Epic.
-I haven't seen it.
-It's so freaking good.
-Is it?
-I can't even begin to tell you.
-Okay.
-You have to see it.
-No, I plan to.
-The Lego Movie?
-The Lego Movie.
What?
-Did you say Lego?
-Lego.
-Lego.
-Okay.
-You gotta see it.
It's epic.
It's fantastic.
-Okay.
All right.
-Well, anyway, you probably heard the theme song from there.
-Sure.
-It's called--
the song is called Everything is AWESOME.
Awesome capitalized.
-And-- but guess who sings this, dude?
-Tegan and Sara?
-Yes.
-Correct.
-Featuring the Lonely Island.
-Correct because he's looking it up.
-Yeah-- Spotify page right now.
-It's Andy Samberg's--
-Yeah, that's pretty cool.
-Yeah, yeah.
-It's like--
-But it's not a joke song like all of The Lonely Island's music.
-That's kind of-- I mean, it's called Everything is AWESOME.
-Yeah and there's three exclamation point.
-But it's not a joke song.
-Right.
-It's a cute happy upbeat.
-It's cutesy.
Yeah.
There you have it.
Everything is AWESOME.
-And I love Tegan and Sara.
I don't know if you're into this.
-I'm a fan.
I'm a fan of Tegan and Sara.
-I think they're really cool.
-Yeah.
-And I interviewed them once in Times Square and it was probably about six years ago and it was like right in the middle of Times Square and people kept coming up and say, who are they, to the camera crew
-Yeah.
-and everything because it-- camera draws a crowd and I'd say,
-Sure.
-oh, it's Tegan and Sarah and they'd be like, uh-huh.
-How cool.
They know it now.
-They had no idea.
Yeah, now they would.
-They've grown up.
Last five years, right?
-They are doing very, very well, touring the world, doing great things.
-Oh, here's The Lonely Island part.
-You know what's really cool about Spotify is that not only that you get this original song but you can also listen to the instrumental sing-alongs.
-A thousand words and right.
-The karaoke version, there's remixes, there's an Everything is AWESOME unplugged.
-sure.
-Maybe acoustic version I'm sure.
-Yeah.
-That's pretty cool.
You have all of that in one playlist.
That's a--
-What's-- can we hear a bit of that Everything is AWESOME unplugged?
-Yeah, let's do that.
-That's--
-Because without that beat it's not really the song anymore.
-I don't know how awesome that could really be.
-Yeah.
-Everything is awesome.
-So, this is not them.
-This is from The Lego Movie soundtrack.
-Is it?
-Yeah.
-Oh, maybe similar--
-This is actually Tegan's voice before you put the--
-No, it's kind of making me wanna run in slow-motion again.
-No need to rock the boat--
-Is this The Lonely Island and Tegan and Sara?
-No.
-No, this is Shawn Patterson.
-Oh, F that guy.
-So, that's our number one.
-Cool.
-Number two is kind of another funny song.
-Okay.
-It's called Selfie.
Have you heard about this?
This has become
a bit of a viral video.
-No.
-By a pair of DJs called The Chainsmokers.
It's a funny song which makes fun of selfies.
I think-- I don't know if it's really making fun of selfies or celebrating them.
-It's giving me a tummy ache.
-Is it?
-Can I watch this real quick?
-You can.
-Okay, let's hear this.
Let me watch this.
-Make me jealous?
Because he was totally texting me all night last night and I don't know if it's a booty call or not.
So, like what do you think?
Did you think that girl was pretty?
How did that girl even get in here?
Did you see her?
She's so short and that dress is so tacky.
Who wears cheetah?
It's not even summer, why does the DJ keep on playing Summertime Sadness?
-It's getting to the good part.
-Oh, I hope so.
-But first, let me take a selfie.
-It's so-- I don't dislike the music, right?
The music is okay.
-You just don't like people talking.
-It's like the first song to make successfully use of a belch, which is pretty good.
-And is that David Hasselhoff?
-That is definitely David Hasselhoff.
-Oh, yes.
-There's two of him.
There's another one.
-Right.
Yeah.
I think he comes back again later.
-Yeah.
-What about David Hasselhoff?
But you know we interviewed him once.
-And how did that go?
What were you interviewing him about?
-We were at Comic-Con two year ago.
-Uh-huh.
-I don't know if you should call him a him.
It was more of like an it because he just--
-Yeah, he was-- it was more of like an abstract David Hasselhoff.
-Yeah.
-Looks a bit strange.
-It's so weird.
-He was-- he is more than just a man.
-Have you ever talked to
somebody and when you look into their eyes, it just doesn't look like there's anything behind it.
-Not that music.
-He looked like a robot.
-Yeah, not-- a robot.
-A robot.
-Not that he was lifeless or anything like that or resembling an automaton, he just-- it's like you look into his eyes and they just look like cloudy marbles.
-Yeah.
-Really?
-Like it was very strange and I remember when he was--
-Isn't that how people look when they're high?
I mean--
-He might have been.
-Well, that kind--
-He might have been.
-It kind of led us to believe that he was perhaps indulging
in something.
-In something.
-Yeah.
-Why?
What do you know about David Hasselhoff?
-All I know is that he was my first celebrity crush.
-Oh, and that's it?
-When I was very, very little.
-[unk]?
-Yeah.
-Really?
Why, from Baywatch?
-No.
-The Knight Rider?
-Knight Rider.
-Yeah?
-Yeah.
In Australia we watched a lot of Knight Rider.
-Did you--
-And I just-- he was adorable and that and--
-He's-- I mean, he's still-- for how old he is, he's still a pretty good-looking dude.
-He-- yeah.
-For
the most like, you know, whatever he has done.
-You mean the plastic [unk] onto his face is good-looking.
-Well, in the Knight Rider he was very, very statuous.
-Yeah.
-I don't know if you use that word to describe a man.
-No, I think that's okay.
-I had a huge crush on him and I went and saw him in a musical.
I can't remember the musical but--
-In a musical?
-in New York.
He was in a-- well, you know, he sings.
He's usually popular in--
-Germany.
-Germany.
-Yeah.
-Because we sing.
-Hasselhoff.
-He was in this musical.
I wish I could remember what it was.
It's a very popular one.
Anyway, oh, Jekyll and Hyde.
-Nope.
-Oh, wow.
Okay.
I know Jekyll and Hyde.
-He's into music like the musical for Jekyll and Hyde?
-The musical.
He was singing.
-Really?
-And I, you know, you know how you can stake out the stage door at the end of the show.
-Yeah.
-I did that with my boyfriend.
-Oh, you're such a stalker.
-Oh, your poor boyfriend.
-And he came out and I gave him a big hug.
-And your boyfriend was like, yeah, go ahead.
-And there were lots of people there.
It's great.
I wish I brought the photo.
There were so many people there screaming, getting hysterical.
-Oh.
-I wasn't screaming of flailing.
And my boyfriend took a photo
of us and it's funny because you see the street in the background behind us but you see no people.
-Uh-hmm.
-So, it looks like me and the Hoff just hanging out together in New York City.
-Oh, nice.
-Where's this photo?
-Somewhere.
-You have it?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
-At home but I have no idea where.
-Guess what, you're bringing it next time.
-Next time I'll bring that.
-The Hoff photo.
-I look very happy in that photo.
-Oh, I bet you do.
The Hoff.
-However, I'm not such a fan anymore.
That was back in the day.
-No.
These photos aren't doing it for you right now?
-No.
-Look at this guy.
-Well that-- so that's--
-So that's--
-Show the photo of us, man.
What the hell are you doing?
Show the photos--
-Yeah, I wanna see you and I wanna see the cloudy marbles.
-Look, he's pointing at you Jeff.
-Oh, hey, what's up?
Hey, right back at you, buddy.
All right.
-Oh, I didn't know this.
-Yeah.
-So, what you're looking up there is appearing right behind my head.
-That is true.
-Oh.
-That is true.
-So, is he pointing at me?
No, he's--
-Yeah, he's pointing.
-He's pointing, that would be me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
-It's pointing at Justin.
-Justin Wu over here
-Jeff Wu.
-Okay.
So, more-- back to the list.
-Yeah, let's get to a couple more.
-We've got another movie
song.
-Okay.
-Okay.
-At number four, Lana Del Rey's Once Upon a Dream.
I love this song.
It's--
-Oh, is that a cover of the original-- I think it's-- yeah, Once Upon a Dream.
-I don't know.
Is it?
It's from the movie-- how do you say it?
-Oh, the Angelina Jolie one.
-How do you say it?
-Maleficent.
-Yeah.
-Maleficent?
-The Disney movie, which--
-And it's an absolutely gorgeous song and Lana Del Rey has this kind of other worldly sound about.
-I've never heard it.
-It's really, really cool.
-Can I hear this?
-Yeah.
Here it is.
-I walked with you once upon a dream.
-Her voice is perfect for this.
-Yeah.
-How come she hasn't done a James Bond song?
Yeah.
She's just perfect.
-I don't know this person.
-Maybe she'll do the next one.
-You don't know Lana Del Rey?
-Maybe I know the voice.
I don't know the name.
Go jump forward a little bit.
-I know what you'll do--
-Yeah, get to the good beat.
Come on.
-Yeah, where's the good beat?
-Yeah, yeah, right.
-All the good beats.
-Yeah, so it's from Sleeping Beauty I think, the original, because isn't that what Maleficent is about?
-It's about--
-It is, yeah.
-She's the witch.
-The mean one, right?
Is that what it--
-Yeah.
-And Angelina Jolie plays her.
Have you seen the trailer for that?
-I haven't seen any.
-Doesn't look too bad.
-Yeah?
-I'm into her voice.
I really dig her voice.
-Her-- you would also like another song of hers, Young and Beautiful from The Hunger Games soundtrack.
-Yeah.
-That's been popular.
-But she does music outside the movies.
Yeah.
-Oh, yes.
She does.
She's a soloist whose music deserves more attention because it's so great.
-Sure.
-Yeah.
-But so far, lately it's just been sort of movies that have been boosting her but--
-Cool.
-great singer in her and like
young beautiful girl.
-Very-- like you said, the harmony is very almost gloomy.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-That lines up with me perfectly.
-She sort of got that Amy Winehouse quality about her voice.
-She does a deli sort of thing, yeah.
Absolutely.
-People don't like her live performances though, right?
-Yeah.
-A lot of people make fun of her because she just doesn't do anything in her live performances.
-What do you want her to do?
-I don't mind that.
I like that.
-Which is fine because yeah, her voice is not super exciting, not dancing--
-Yeah.
-Yeah, the music doesn't lend itself to a theatrical performance.
-Yeah.
-It's like Adele.
Adele just stands there and sings.
-Yeah.
-And you don't need her to do anything else.
-I'm into it.
All right.
-All right.
-A one for fifteen.
Not bad.
-And-- one for fifteen.
And another song which I think is gonna-- I have a feeling it's gonna be really hot over the spring and summer and it's a David Guetta thing.
I don't know if you're probably done like David Guetta.
-I know him, of him.
-A popular French DJ.
-Yup.
-He actually has the most number of followers on Spotify.
-Oh, it's an accomplishment.
-Than any other person more than five million.
-Wow.
-This song is called Shot Me
Down and the song, you know, it sort of samples and recreates or re-imagines, if you like, the song from the 1960's that Nancy Sinatra sang.
-Oh.
-All right and that was a Kill Bill.
-Kill Bill.
Yeah.
-Oh, okay.
-And Kill Bill got it to the full.
-We're talking my language a little bit.
Here we go.
-A bit of-- once you bring some killing into it.
-Yeah.
-Oh, it's a-- he replaced the singer.
So, this is--
-Yeah, this is Skylar Grey.
-Okay.
-He's an up and coming singer somewhere.
-I like this.
-He wore black and I wore white.
-Yeah, just wait.
-It gets awesome.
-Well.
-Yeah.
-I don't know if you--
-Okay.
-I don't know what's your kind of awesome but--
-Oh, oh.
Cool.
What's happening to me right now?
-You feel like tingles?
-Oh, oh.
-Oh, keep those tingles to yourself.
It's okay.
-It's cool.
I like that.
I like this, it's neat.
-But this-- and what's nice about this song is it goes from this and then it goes back to that sleepy vocal.
-Sure.
-It's just kind of-- it-- the pacing
switches up all through the song and it's I like the way he does it.
It's so clever.
-I was scared it was gonna be like a dub step you think but it's not.
It's--
-No.
It's fearing towards [unk] and it goes back and chill.
-Yeah, chill.
Activate--
-Do you think if Nancy Sinatra were alive she would be into this song?
-No.
-No.
-Probably not but it doesn't matter.
-But that's not what it's about.
-Yes.
-It's not what it's about.
-No.
-This is cool, man.
-Yeah.
-I'm into it.
-It's doing really well.
It's kind of one of those bubbling up.
I think--
-Up and coming?
Yeah.
-I think it's gonna be a summer jam.
-Uh-hmm.
-Summer
jam.
-Oh, coming up.
-Summer jams.
Summer jams 2014.
-Maybe if summer ever comes.
-When does summer start for this?
-Yeah.
-No more of this sledding.
-Do you not know that or are you asking us?
-When does it happen?
-June 21st.
-That's summer?
-That is summer.
-When is spring?
-March 22nd.
-Okay.
I'm still confused because I did grow up in the Southern hemisphere.
It's all backwards.
-Right but it's just like reverse, right?
-Yeah but the dates, who pays attention to the dates?
-Okay.
No, yeah, who knows when seasons change, it just happens.
-It does.
-All right.
I like this part.
-How?
-This part is cool.
-Justin is really
into the song.
-I would totally dance.
I would dance real nice to this.
-Well, that's what I like about David Guetta's stuff.
It's stuff that I would actually dance to.
You know, a lot of house music I enjoy,
-This is rad.
-but it's not gonna get me up on my feet.
-I don't usually like dances but there's enough originality here where I'm like, yeah.
-Do you dance?
Are you a dancer?
-You ask this guy.
-Does he get his [unk]?
-The last time I've ever seen Jeff dances at his wedding and--
-And?
-and it's pretty bad.
Just kidding.
No.
It's fun.
You know what it is?
It's a lot of-- Jeff does a shimmy which I like.
-And it's freaking nasty.
-It's almost like the--
-It's a nasty shimmy.
-Yeah, it's a crazy shimmy.
-It's a shimmy that you like rethink your life too when you see it.
-Do you have a video of this shimmy?
-I wish I did.
I was too busy dying of laughter.
-We danced together and we--
-We did.
We were holding hands together.
It's like a ring around the rope.
-brought the Amber effin' house down.
-No, that's good.
It was really good.
-That's what we did.
-All right.
-You'll see.
-I'm sorry
I wasn't there.
-The next 404 meet-up--
-Someone wants to video this.
-The next 404 meet-up that we have in New York, you'll be at.
-Okay.
-And we'll all get nasty.
-We'll dance.
-On the dance floor.
-We'll all do the ring,
-Yeah.
-Ring Around the Rosy.
-Jeff puts his hands up too.
-No, I'm not a hands up guy.
-Yeah, yeah, his arms never go lower than his shoulders when he's dancing.
-I do.
I get one hand's in the air.
-He like, put his hands up.
-Yeah?
-Really.
-I never do both hands.
-I'm sure you do.
-No.
-Why?
A lot of women do that.
-Just one.
-Yeah.
-They're just like, this is my hand, I'm the Statue of Liberty.
Like I don't get that.
I don't get that.
-And they'll give you that point when they dance
either.
Like, what are you pointing at me for?
-Yeah.
I don't like any of that.
I don't like any of that and I do a lot of like self boxing I call it, where you're like--
-Yes.
-Just a little bit.
-Yeah.
-You know, but--
-Then you do like the lower lip bit too while you're doing that.
Yeah, yeah.
-Like that maybe?
You'll see, you'll see.
More news to-- more news on that to come.
-You really have to.
Dancing is a funny thing.
You really have to just be prepared to just make a fool of yourself.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Well, you know what?
-And like girl, you just have to let the F go.
Sorry, I shouldn't say the F.
-I feel like the-- no,
you can say the letter F, that's fine.
-Okay.
-I feel like the times I dance now are only at weddings because I don't go to clubs anymore,
-Right.
-because I'm, you know, like older.
-Yeah.
-And it seems silly to do that.
-Yeah.
-So, when I dance at that weddings and you get a little intoxicated,
-Uh-hmm.
-and that doesn't hurt.
Some people-- but I like look around the dance floor and like I-- you know, I feel very comfortable dancing.
-Uh-hmm.
-Because I have the self illusion that I'm a good dancer.
-Right.
-Where it's like you see other people and you could tell like they're not
comfortable on their own skin dancing and I kind of feel for them a little bit.
-No.
No.
-Yeah.
-I think the problem is that whenever you're trying to dance and let go, you can't do it because there's always like a gut led of dudes or anyone like not just guys but people
-In circles.
-on the perimeter of the dance floor there.
-Yeah.
-Just like sitting there and judging you like-- like you're in some kind of competition.
-There's gotta be some sort of like socialize you go like or some sort of like experiment.
-Yeah.
-Where it's like why do-- why do people just gather in circles?
Like why does that happen?
-Right.
-That always happens on the dance floor.
-Well,
it's interesting now that I have babies because my watching them grow up and become accustomed to music,
-Right.
-it's like something that's innate.
-Yeah.
-It's not.
I didn't teach them dancing.
-It's instinctual.
-Yeah.
-I didn't teach them to like music.
-Yeah, yeah.
-But they, at a very small age like, or do we say small age?
Young age, like I'm talking 8 months old.
-Yeah.
-They start doing this.
-Cool.
-When they hear music and--
-That's amazing thing.
-and I never showed Kylie how to do that.
-Right on.
-She just did it on her own.
So, it proves to me that we are supposed to move.
-It's a natural like born sort of thing.
-Yeah.
-And we are supposed to get into music in some way.
-I mean--
-What kind of music are you playing for your kids?
-Yeah, that's good question.
-Not what we just--
-Not David Guetta.
-No, not #Selfie.
-I have a playlist on Spotify for Kylie and it's filled with Mickey Mouse stuff and The Wiggles have some great songs.
-Right, right, right.
-And also some songs that I
like that I want her to like, like the somewhere-- the Over the Rainbow version by the guy from Hawaii.
-The Moffatts, yeah.
-Oh, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
-Yes, I can never say his name.
-Yeah.
-His name is a little more complicated than yours.
-So good.
-Oh, is that 50 First Dates?
-Yes.
-Yeah.
-It's a beautiful, beautiful--
-Yeah.
-That is a great song.
-Unfortunately when I-- when it gets to that song on the playlist, Kylie's like, it's so boring.
-Yeah.
What?
RIP that is.
-You know what, I feel like it's safe that it's just playing The Beatles for the kids.
-Yeah, I haven't tried The Beatles.
I should try The Beatles.
-Try The Beatles.
I'm curious about that and you'll report back to us.
-Yeah.
I wanna hold your--
-There you go.
-I can see you're getting into that.
-It's like the most likeable music on earth I think.
-It is.
It is.
-Yeah.
-I also play a little bit of Kylie Minogue for Kylie because her name is Kylie.
-Right.
-Is that why you named her that?
-Locomotion.
You know, it's a funny question because I'm not sure, because when I was pregnant,
-Yeah.
-I interviewed Kylie Minogue.
-Uh-huh.
-And I had-- being from Australia was kind of a big deal because she's a big deal Aussie.
She's an Aussie icon.
-Right.
-And she was so nice.
She was so nice and I
came away from the interview thinking she was just a really lovely, lovely, lovely Kylie.
And then a few months later the baby popped out and I was like, Kylie.
-Wow.
-It's Kylie but I don't know--
-I think that's pretty definitive proof.
-I don't know if there was that much of a relationship between us two events to be honest.
-Yeah.
-Okay.
What's this?
-This is a weird transition.
-This is Mickey Mouse.
-We went from Somewhere Over the Rainbow--
-This is Goofy.
-to Goofy singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
This is adorable, by the way.
-This is actually Kylie's
playlist.
-It's like the reggae version.
-I would love to see Kylie dancing this.
This is a very cute song.
-Yeah.
-The other song she likes is not in the playlist, it's the Gummy Bear's--
-Oh, theme song?
-Are you familiar with The Gummy Bears?
-Yeah.
-Nice.
-Great video too.
-This is like a SCA song.
-Yeah.
Kinda feeling this.
I wanna follow this playlist.
-Sick.
Goofy.
Goofy skanks it up.
-Yeah.
-I need to update it because we're getting a bit sick of all that stuff.
-Yeah, there's only five songs down here.
I'd imagine you could think of it pretty cool.
-Yeah.
-All right.
Well, very good.
-Well, I took a bunch
out.
-Do you have any more?
Or is that-- we're good.
-I haven't done.
-All right.
Rock and roll.
-I mean, I can always keep going but I'll come back.
-And we wanted to-- obviously you'll come back and I wanna bring up a story that I thought you would personally enjoy.
-All right.
-Because it-- you know, we started off the show kind of--
-Is it about David Hasselhoff?
-A little bit.
No, not at all.
-Yeah.
-We started off-- I wasn't making fun of Australia and their sort of like shortcomings in the Winter Olympics.
-No, I know.
-There is a team there, but where you guys lack in Winter Olympics prowess, you make up
for in 4G speed.
So, you know what 4G is right?
-Yes.
-Like your cellphone.
-Yup.
-Get this.
A new study out and this is The Next Web reporting.
It says that 4G data, while it's the second slowest on earth in the USA, which is awesome, right?
-I can't believe this.
-Aren't you really psyched that we're paying all that money?
It's the fastest in Australia.
The fastest.
-That's very frustrating.
-Gold medal for you guys in the 4G competition.
-We are the lugers of 4G.
-Not only does the U.S.
totally suck you know what in 4G speeds, we're also not too great in holding onto a 4G signal.
So, there are all these tests conducted and they found that only 67 percent of the time do people have a 4G LTE connection.
-Uh-hmm.
-So, you know, sometimes your phone drops in and out of 4G and you're like, what the hell is going on?
We don't fair too well in that department.
The UK manages to stay connected even less about 53 percent of the time.
But get this, and this what really pisses me off and this is why I wanted to bring it up.
We've gone down.
Like it's big-- it used to be fast here but we've gone down.
Covering the second half of the 2013, the U.S. download speeds have dropped from an average of 9.6 megabytes per second to 6.5.
What the F, man?
Why is it getting slower?
-That's gonna be bandwidth providers that are probably making tiered data plans.
-Well, you got--
-If you have to pay more to get faster speeds.
-So, it's a 30 percent drop
and it's the fault of everything.
It's the strain on the network,
-Yeah.
-more people are getting smartphones.
The rate of upgrading is inconsistent.
-Uh-hmm.
-And it all just adds up to a big old fat American disaster that is our wireless networks.
-Yup.
I've definitely noticed that on Netflix in the past year.
I've got--
-That's a huge story.
-Yes, that's a different story.
-Yeah.
-But sort of in the same vein.
Basically, Netflix has gotten slower for everybody in the last year because--
-Right.
-that is what you'll do.
-ISP is a Netflix can't decide who has to pay
for the faster
-Exactly.
-and more people are coming.
-That doesn't have anything to do with mobile networks but it does, like you said, have a lot to do with high-speed internet and like you--
-Just getting throw out over there.
-They opened up like a new super streaming service and since they did that, it just played hell with everything.
-Oh, really?
-You use Netflix a lot or no?
-No, I do sometimes.
-Yeah.
-I'm a bit of a Hulu.
-Okay.
-Hulu hooper.
-You're a Hulu freak.
-A little bit.
-I wanna talk about this real quick.
-Not freak.
-And then we'll have one more story and then we'll say goodbye for the day.
Have you ever seen the
1984 movie Dragnet?
Do you know what I'm talking about?
You do.
With Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks.
-Yeah, but I haven't seen it.
-You've never but you know the movie.
-Yeah.
-You've never seen it?
-I've never seen it before.
-So, Dragnet was a police show on TV that got turned into a movie in mid '80s.
-I think I remember the theme song.
-Where Dan Aykroyd plays this very like uptight detective, Detective Friday--
-Right.
-is his name.
-Uh-hmm.
-And Tom Hanks is his like wacky sidekick.
This is when Tom Hanks is doing like Money Pit
and Bachelor Party,
-Right.
-when he was making all those funny movies.
Anyway, there you go, the Dragnet theme song.
There's a scene in the film that's very obvious product placement where the two of them are driving in a car and Tom Hanks looks down at his watch and it's a Seiko watch that has a TV in it.
-Uh-hmm.
-And this, and I did some research, this was a real watch in 1984 that they offered.
-Huh.
-Okay?
This is crazy and this is so up your alley, Justin.
You
love this kind of job.
-It's cool, yeah.
-So, get this.
It had a 1.1-inch blue LCD display that, get this, wasn't backlit.
So, you couldn't watch it anywhere unless you weren't direct sunlight.
-Right.
-It had a 1.1-inch screen.
Now, get this, this is where it gets crazier.
Not only was it $495 and that's in 1983, which is probably what, 1500?
I mean, with inflation like how much money that is,
you know, 31 years ago.
-Uh-hmm.
-The watch came with this little adapter on top.
As you could see, that little black thing,
-Uh-hmm.
-which had a wire that connected to your belt and that was the receiver.
-Why--
-So, you have to have this tethered to your freaking body
-Yes.
-to get TV channels in.
And in the film, Tom Hanks is like, looks down and he's like, I'm watching TV and it's such a blatant like product placement thing.
-That's so cool.
-And I had seen the film again.
It was on HBO a couple of days ago and I was watching
it and it is like a guilty pleasure/cold classic.
-Was this a popular--
-I don't think that--
-Did it work?
Did it take off?
I don't--
-No.
It did terribly.
They pulled it off the shelves really quick.
-Really?
-In 2005, a company released a 1.5-inch colored display with, that was a huge sort of case but that was only 99 bucks.
-Uh-hmm.
-Right.
-Apparently, that works a lot better.
But I just wanted to bring a little piece of retro tech up because that's--
-That's a cool website too.
-Yeah.
-Retrothing.com.
-For sure.
-It just has archives of pretty much
everything over the last 40 years or so.
-If there's a gadget that you grew up with that you're trying to put your finger on.
-Yeah.
-Likely, this site will have it referenced somewhere.
Pretty rad.
Finally, I wanna talk about The Dark Knight and Google.
So, you're familiar with The Dark Knight, the film The Dark Knight?
-Right.
-At the end of the film what happens?
Where like Bruce Wayne works with Lucius Fox and they built this like crazy sort of cellphone Sonar 3D Imaging System,
-Uh-hmm.
-so that Batman
could find out where Heath Ledger was, where The Joker was.
-Yeah.
-There's like you know, high rise somewhere.
-Right.
-Right.
-So, believe it or not, Google is trying to emulate that technology with something called Project Tango.
So, in the film, the sci-fi element was like everyone with a cellphone has a Sonar and like it's constantly blasting waves and they were able to like image those waves.
-Right.
It's like triangulating
-Right.
-someone else's cellphone based on everyone else surrounding.
-That's kind of the attempt,
what's going on with Project Tango.
-Yes, it's crazy.
-It's really strange.
It's realistic 3D mapping of the real world.
-But it's not Sonar though, right?
-It's not Sonar.
-This is unused audio.
-Yeah.
-This is like through video on the phone
-Right.
-that's constantly taking footage of everything around it.
-Right, but it's--
-And it builds a world that the cellphone is in.
-It sort of it's like a wire frame of that.
-Yeah.
That's so cool.
-Which is amazing.
So, imagine like you have a phone that's always recording video.
-Right.
-And everywhere you go, it's recording video.
So, what this
Tango Project--
-Whether you wanted to or not.
-Well, it's like specialized for this purpose.
-Okay.
-So, it's always recording video, so it's always making 3D models of everything you see.
-Right.
-So, it's almost kind of like Her too where it's like he's kinda have his phone in his pocket and whatever he sees the phone sees.
-Yeah.
-And the phone can like make decisions and say like, oh, you know, and that's what they're trying to do.
It's really interesting.
I highly recommend everyone goes to CNET and reads the article that Seth Rosenblatt wrote about it.
-It's so cool.
-Pretty rad.
-That best part about this story to me is the open source element of it.
-Yeah.
-That they're gonna be sending out dev kits to people to build their own applications.
-Sure.
It's pretty--
-Sort of based on this model.
So cool and the video of that will link to in the show notes today.
Let's talk about different applications that will eventually be used in.
One of which is to help blind people actually map the world around them so they don't have to rely on seeing our dogs and things like that.
-Like--
-But that's just one of the used cases.
-Oh, that sounds interesting.
-There's a million different things like gaming for example.
-Sure.
-I think it's gonna really affect that too.
-And if you're worried about like, you know, the invasion of
privacy and all, don't worry about that.
-Privacy is dead.
-Well, yeah, I guess.
-Isn't it?
-It's sort of dead.
-It was going to die.
You know, Lance Ulanoff?
-Yeah.
-With Mashable.
He-- I remembered I interviewed him the end of 2013.
He said-- no, the end of 2012.
He said 2013 was gonna be the end of privacy.
There would just be no more privacy by the end of the year.
-Yeah.
-However, I feel like there's still just a
scrap of privacy.
-Yeah and it's in your bathroom.
-But it's-- exactly.
-That's really where it is.
-And I think we should all try and hold onto it in 2014 or just give it up.
-I think each generation has a different interpretation of what privacy is.
-I agree.
-And you know, the definition is ever evolving but yeah, it's pretty much gone.
-But hey, you were the ones who want freaking camera phones, right?
This is the place we're gonna die.
-And you guys can join me in the
bathroom anytime.
-I'll be there.
-Tell me you got that.
Tell me you got that.
I think we should end it there.
Fantastic of you for you being here.
-It's time for our bathroom break.
-Thank you so much.
-Thanks for having me.
-It's always a pleasure and you'll be back very soon.
-Yeah.
How about I come back after South By Southwest and we could talk about--
-Okay.
You're going out there, right?
-Yeah.
-Awesome.
Have a fun time.
-I will.
I'm sorry you won't be there.
-Say hi to everyone.
No, yeah, we're sorry too but it just wasn't in the cards shockingly.
-Not this year.
-Not this year.
Everyone have a fantastic weekend.
E-mail us the404@cnet.com.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, all that good stuff.
-Uh-hmm.
-And then follow Shanon on Twitter @ShanonCook that's one N in Shanon.
It's Shanon.
-It's not Shanon.
-It's not Shanon.
-And it's not Shanon.
It's Shanon.
Justin.
-Have a good one.
We'll see you soon.
Thanks so much for being here seriously.
-Thanks for having me.
I had fun.
-That will do it for us.
Have a fantastic weekend, everyone.
We're back here on Monday.
I'm Jeff Bakalar.
-And I'm
Justin Yu.
-This has been The 404 Show.
Thanks again to Shanon Cook.
We'll see you guys soon.